Rick Santorum in Cavuto Interview: ‘This Is the Hatchet-Job of All Time’ (Video Added)

Posted on Comments

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana
Rick Santorum says it is “absurd” for anyone to suggest he would not support the Republican Party’s nominee against President Obama.

“This is the hatchet-job of all time,” the former Pennsylvania senator told Neil Cavuto during an often-contentious Friday afternoon interview on Fox News about Santorum’s comments at a Thursday event in Texas. “I’ve said repeatedly the number-one priority is beating Barack Obama. I’d support anybody. They said, ‘Would you support Ron Paul?’ Of course, I’d support anybody on the Republican ticket and I’ve said it throughout the course of this campaign.”

Santorum blasted the controversy over his remarks during an appearance Thursday in San Antonio as “a made-up story.” During that Texas speech, Santorum reiterated his argument for offering a conservative alternative to Obama by saying that if Republicans nominate Mitt Romney, “we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future.” (Click here to see full quote and video of Santorum’s San Antonio comments.)

In his Friday interview with Cavuto, Santorum clarified that remark, saying said he has been “traveling around this country saying that the highest priority is to defeat Barack Obama, and what I was saying there is that, if we don’t have a choice, then the American public, y’know, may decide to keep Barack Obama. That’s all I said. I’ve said it in every speech.”

The latest polls show Santorum with a double-digit lead among Louisiana Republicans on the eve of Saturday’s primary here.

I will have more quotes from Santorum’s interview with Cavuto, and will add reaction to his interview and video as they become available.

UPDATE: Alex Alvarez at the liberal Mediaite blog headlines this, “Neil Cavuto Hammers Rick Santorum Over Obama/Romney Comparison,” and calls the interview “a shouting match.” Cavuto was (a) at the very least playing devil’s advocate or (b) possibly even pushing Romney talking points. But I repeat myself.

Anyway, here’s the video:

UPDATE II: Fox News calls this a “fiery interview” and, indeed, Cavuto’s viewers saw the fiery side of Rick Santorum. Clearly, he has gotten sick and tired of what’s been happening the past few weeks: Reporters playing journalistic “gotcha” games, knowing that if they can be the first to find two “controversial” sentences in an hour-long Santorum speech and turn it into a catchy headline, they’re guaranteed a Drudge link.

Let those of you who are not Santorum fans ask yourself this important question: What if you were in Rick Santorum’s shoes?

What if you had spent all those months criss-crossing Iowa in a pickup truck, speaking to small groups of Republican voters. Sometimes less than a half-dozen would show up, but Rick would give them the full treatment, as if they were the most powerful and influential Republicans in Iowa — and, as it turned out, they were: When push came to shove, after the Perry bandwagon ran into the ditch, after the Cain Train ran off the rails, after Newt imploded, all those voters Santorum had been shaking hands with said to themselves, “You know something? We ought to vote for Rick. He’s earned it.”

And he earned it when nobody believed he could do it, when all he had was determination in the face of relentless discouragement.

Santorum didn’t have big money. He didn’t have praise from big-name pundits. He didn’t have the GOP Establishment on his side, and the major media gave him quite nearly zero coverage. But he kept plugging away — “Steady Eddie,” as he said — until he finally broke through.

So he did all that, campaigning for nearly a year, and now that he’s the leading rival to Mr. Inevitable, what kind of coverage does he get? “Gotcha”!

And too many conservatives, who should be defending Santorum against these attacks, are instead playing along with the media “gotcha” game, ready to throw Santorum under the Romney bus.

Let me tell you something: I remember when Charles Johnson tried to throw Pamela Geller under the wheels of his Little Green Bus, and I stood up and said not just no, but hell, no.

Maybe Rick Santorum’s not your favorite candidate. Maybe Pamela Geller’s not your favorite blogger. Maybe Rush Limbaugh’s not your favorite talk-radio host, but conservatives can’t let liberals tell us who our friends are.

Don’t let liberals tell you what to think. Don’t play along with the “gotcha” game. Don’t help them defame people’s reputations.

By God, REMEMBER BREITBART!

Update III (Smitty): thank you, Instapundit! I think Stacy may be in need of encouragement down in the Big Easy.

Update IV (Smitty): linked by CrackMC in a long meditation with quite a few interesting images and thoughts. Have to re-read that one.

114 comments

  1. Yeah except Santorum is the one who said we’d be better off keeping Obama. No one else said that, Santorum did.

    Face it, Romney sucks, but Santorum is a moron.  He continually says stupid things, and has to walk them back.

    There’s a reason why democrats have been organizing and crossing over to vote for this nimrod. Obama would win all 57 states against this guy! 

  3. Santorum is the only one who makes sense in the race.  He speaks the truth….  Ronald Reagan spoke boldly…why are we so afraid now to be BOLD?

  5. These candidates, all, are extremely fatigued. Is it any wonder there would be times when what they meant comes out wrong? Who among us hasn’t done the same at some point in our lives and not under the kind of pressure these guys are under? I say give Santorum a break. Also Romney who made reference to who are some of his wealthy friends. The media lurks in hopes they can pounce on a gotcha situation. We as the voters can make this stop by not letting these ridiculous stories be relevant. Don’t buy into these kind of political shenanigans. Ignore these things and move on to the real issues.

  6. You’re continuing to mis-interpret the point Rick was making. Arguably, he could have broken it down better, but willful distortion is un-cool. #PartyFoul

  8. I’m going to come out in disagreement with Rick on this one.
    I think it was only the best hatchet job in the Biden-Klein 500-100 years BHO (Before His Obamaness) Constitutional Antiquity period.
    Rick, I feel, is overselling the size and heft of the hatchet in question.

  10. Can you imagine if Obama came off this unhinged in an interview?  We’d be popping the Champagne.

    Santorum simply does not have the temperament to be President.  Do you really think 51% of Americans are going to make this guy leader of the Free World?   This is how he handles some bad press? 

    As much as we conservatives would love to believe all that matters is a checklist of issues, the person running is usually what wins or loses elections.

    Santorum comes off like a crazy person, for him to be this emotional and angry at this stage makes no sense.  He should be looking for a graceful way to exit, not throwing wild haymakers over a lost news cycle.

  11. I’ve been in my truck and listening to talk radio all day. Fox news has been pimping this non controversy all day trying to help Mr. Romneycare. I would be angry with them as well, if I were Santorum. 

  12. When Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds “misunderstand” what Rick said (and I saw the video too and misunderstood it) then the fault is with Rick Santorum.  He should not point blame that Team Romney and Drudge ran with it, he should instead by saying it is absolutely wrong and sorry for the misstatement on his part. 

  14. I do not have a problem with Rick Santorum being “firey” in responding to Romney or Gingrich.  That is fine.  I have a problem in Rick Satorum not acknowledging he was less than clear and hence how people misunderstood his intent.  The comment the other day did sound like he would prefer Obama over Romney…although it was a bit garbled. 

  16. I know how everyone feels with regard to Rick being too hot-tempered. I felt the same way when Reagan lost control at the New Hampshire debate as the moderator tried to squelch him. “I paid for this microphone,” he screamed.
     
    I told everyone who would listen, we can’t pick a guy like this! Next thing you know he’ll be trying to tear down the Berlin wall.
     
    And I was right, you fools. Better far to nominate a robotic moderate if any such are in this race.

  19. EBL: You won’t get credit for the links in the weekly FMJRA unless you mail to Wombat a list of this past week’s links that you made.  As Wombat has explained: Blogger does not pingback, so he can’t see any links coming from Blogger sites when he runs the program that compiles the FMJRA.

  20. Actually, I just came here from Glenn Beck’s page where Santorum said exactly that – “I could have been more articulate”. 

    Not that I think it will matter much as I’m sure those who are eagerly jumping on this manufactured story as a bludgeon are still going to find SOMETHING here to fault Santorum for, regardless…

  22. And Mrs. Malkin and Instapundit are never wrong?

    MM is in this case.  She’s not perfect [and has never claimed to be].

    Insty is just showing his true colors as an ideological Libertarian [ie: someone who despises religion].

  24. I concur. All hype. We saw this play out with Cain.

    The Mittens people and liberals are scared of Santorum (who I am not a big fan of, but he is better than Romney). They will use any and every thing to destroy him.

  25. I do believe that Mittens would less to far worse consequences than Obama (since it would take 8 to 16 years to field a conservative President).

    But this is hatchet jobbery that is evidently par for this election course.

  26. Hey, rememer when all those interviewers got all confrontational with Barack Obama and he got like all mad and stuff? Good times….

  27. No-one could tell if/when those interviewers were confrontational because they usually had thier heads bowed……..

  30. Santorum makes a lot of garbled statements. If the republicans nominate him it will be an absolute trainwreck.

  31. Comparing Ricky with Reagan is ridiculous. The reason a moderate like Romney will get the nomination is that there is no conservative that inspires like Reagan did. Besides, Icky Ricky still cannot justify his support for Arlen Specter when Pat Toomey is the real conservative.

  34.  No.  Rick made his “point” and it blew up in his face.  He has no one to blame but HIMSELF for saying something SO STUPID, regardless if he “could have articulated it better” or not.

    Politics ain’t beanball.  Get your sh_t straight, Rick, or go home…

  35. You are a good egg Bob. BTW I am not buying the left narrative. But when Rick Santorum confuses even Michelle Malkin…then the messenger mangled the message.

  36. Stacey,

    You’re right.  If someone were to take what I said and attribute a meaning to my words that I had said was inappropriate, I’d  be upset.  So, if (after Santorum clarified his meaning) Romney or Gingrich were to say that Santorum threatened to vote for Obama if Santorum were not the Republican nominee, Santorum would have a right to be upset. 

    How should Romney feel when Santorum goes around with an Etch-A-Sketch claiming Romney’s campaign admitted that Romney’s policy positions are written in sand?  Romney has specifically disavowed that interpretation of what his adviser said, yet Santorum continues to use the Etch-A-Sketch comment against Romney. 

  41. Totally disagree. The people are plugged in, will stay plugged in, and ensure that we have some right rudder on the ship of state, even if it’s less than we’d like.

  43.  You have great faith.

    I will certainly do my part, hopefully the Conservative movement does not run out of steam….even if we are stuck with President Mittens or another term of Obama.

  45. What Rick said in the Cavuto clip is consistent with his entire campaign.
    You can, if you want, take a bloody-minded view of the  transcript of the contentious remark and arrive at the conclusion that, for some reason, he deviated 180 degrees from the rest of the campaign, I suppose.

  46. “If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future”
     
    The spin that Santorum would prefer Obama came from between his own two lips, no matter how much clarification he attempts and no matter how much screeching outrage he shows at people for not understanding what he meant instead of what he said. This is high irony, coming from a guy who is busily trying to spin Eric Fehrnstrom as saying something he clearly didn’t mean, and trying to spin Romney as Obama Lite when Romney is nothing of the kind.

  47. I do have faith. Not in any of these candidates, but in God and the notion that the Information Age heralds a second American Revolution, as we do to Progressivism what the Founders did to Parliament, and for the same reasons.

  48. Sorry, but this statement is nonsense.  Romney makes 10x the garbled statements that Santorum does.  So what’s the difference?  The media are afraid of Santorum.

    I could take two phrases out of anything you say George and could later argue they prove you’re an axe murderer.  Does that make you a train wreck? 

Comments are closed.